1. In those days there was no king in Israel, and in those days the tribe of Dan was seeking an inheritance for itself to settle in, for to that day no territory had fallen to them for an inheritance in the midst of the tribes of Israel.
2. So the children of Dan sent five men from their clan, out of their entire population, men of valor from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and explore it, and said to them, “Go, explore the land.” When they came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, they lodged there.
3. When they were near the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young man, the Levite. So they turned aside there and asked him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What do you have here?”
4. He said to them, “Thus and thus Micah did for me—he hired me and I became his priest.”
5. “Please inquire of God,” they said to him, “so we may know whether our way that we are going will be successful.”
6. “Go in peace,” the priest said to them. “The way that you are going has Adonai’s approval.”
7. Then the five men left and came to Laish, and saw the people there living securely, like the Zidonians, tranquil and unsuspecting. For there was no humiliation or anything oppressive in the land. Moreover, they were distant from the Zidonians and had no dealings with anybody.
8. When they came back to their kinsmen at Zorah and Eshtaol, their kinsmen asked them, “What do you say?”
9. “Arise, let’s go up against them!” they said. “For we have seen the land—see, it’s very good. Yet you’re sitting still! Don’t be sluggish! Go enter, possess the land!
10. When you get there, you will come to unsuspecting people. The land is spacious. For God has put it in your hand—a place where there is no lack of anything on the earth.”
11. So from the Danite clan from Zorah and Eshtaol, 600 men set out, armed with weapons of war.
12. They went up and camped at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. Therefore they called that place Mahaneh-Dan to this day—behold, it is west of Kiriath-jearim.